Please note: This website chronicles the CNEs first 100 years and a bit ... but our history continues to evolve, and this website will continue to be expanded and embellished over time, as more decades & images are added! Keep checking back!

Please note: This website chronicles the CNEs first 100 years and a bit ... but our history continues to evolve, and this website will continue to be expanded and embellished over time, as more decades & images are added! Keep checking back!

The invention of an ingenious German engineer Ernst Hoffmeister , The Giant Rotor, over 50 feet high, operates on the principle of centrifugal force."

Hoffmeister invented the ride in the late 1940s and it premiered at Oktoberfest in 1949. Rotors and were a mainstay at fairs and events throughout Europe and North American in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Rotor is a large, upright barrel, rotated at 33 revolutions per minute. The rotation of the barrel creates a centrifugal effect equivalent to almost 3 g. Once the barrel has attained full speed, the floor is retracted, leaving the riders stuck to the wall of the drum.

At the end of the ride cycle, the drum slows down and gravity takes over. The riders slide the wall slowly. Most Rotors were construction deck.